I will be publishing on my blog author and character interviews throughout the summer. After that, no promises - I start back to my teaching job - but right now I have the time and energy to take on a little more.
Shoot me an email at kathy@ariverofstones.com and I'll get back to you. Include in the email the name of your book, the genre, the link to your book on Amazon, whether you want an author or a character interview, and a little about the story.
It's that time again to start thinking about the holidays. No kidding. Come September, the rush is on to get those books out for holiday sales. Do you want to be a part of the rush? Let me know and I'll set up an author and/or a character interview with you. So far, everything is scheduled out until October 10th, so anything after that is fair game. I usually post interviews on Monday's and Wednesday's with a Friday Flicks segment on, you guessed it, Friday's. A am looking for authors in various genres to spotlight. Please send me an email at: kathy@ariverofstones.com and we'll discuss when we can place you. Things will be getting busy. Why not get your interview ready before the rush? Thanks! Kathryn
Obviously, the new year has brought some difficulties for authors and some of my interviews are just not going to take place this month :(
The good news is that this gives me an additional opportunity to plug author and character interviews. In a nutshell, filling out a form, whether for yourself or your character, takes about 20 minutes of your time. If you have your author photo and book cover jpgs ready as well as a couple of links for me to add to the interview, we're talking possibly another five minutes of your time.
What do you get for that time?
New readers! Maybe even readers who are willing to try you out as a writer and buy your book! FREE advertising! Can't beat that. A chance to share who you are and what you do - or how your character thinks. An opportunity for a possible trade. Many times I have authors on my side, who, in turn, offer to interview me or post my books for free advertising on their site. How does this help you? More readership for your blog.
I would LOVE to help you with your marketing. Why not shoot me an email today and let's get started! Kathryn
I'm continually amazed at how many writers spend little time marketing their work. Obviously, a writer should write more than they market, but how are those potential readers ever going to discover you if you don't get the word out?
No, I'm not doing any character or author interviews until September, but I will need to hear from you before then if you're interested. Who wouldn't want the FREE advertising? If you also have a terrific book trailer, let me know. I will slot you for my Friday Flicks segment.
So, what are you waiting for?
Let me know today, right here, or shoot me an email at: Kathy@ariverofstones.com! Let me know what you write and what you'd like to do to promote your work. I'll take it from there.
I wanted to let you know that author and character interviews on my blog will be slowing down for the summer. What that means for you is that you have ample opportunity to submit your information to be a part of the author and character interviews beginning again in September.
Author and character interviews are a great way to reach your readers. These interviews allow your readers to learn a little more about you and about your characters in a way that just reading your books won't.
So I encourage you to take part beginning in September. Just shoot me an email at: kathy@ariverofstones.com, and tell me you're interested.
Keep in mind that I try to post author and character interviews with no more than a PG-13 rating.
Used to be, getting blog reviewers for your book was easy; about as easy as writing a letter to your grandmother and getting a response. But things have changed.
Just since last year, I have noticed many bloggers who also review books shifting gears a bit. Many are now doing author interviews and showing off new releases. There just isn't the time to read an entire book and place a review on Amazon.
What's easy is getting the author to send you all of the material for a terrific question and answer interview. All that's needed then is a bit of copying and pasting of the material.
And the promotion is done.
I am all for promotion, however it looks, but I am finding in more and more difficult to get the reviews that still are the number one (online) way to sell books. What this means to me is that I have to work all that much harder at getting the reviews, and still manage to get the author interviews and other free promotion I need done, and this takes extra time.
The good news is that if a reviewer likes one of my books they may be interested in reviewing another, but if this is your first book, times are hard, and getting those reviews in may cause you to wish things were back to the 'old' days.
Having said that, I think it's important to take a look at all the new great things that people are doing to sell their books. Just last week I was a part of another author's first book release. She took most of the time on Facebook doing contests and talking about her book for her day book party; I was given an hour of her day to promote mine.
It's an interesting idea, one that I may try again. We didn't get loads of responses, but I figure this was partially due to the fact that she was a new author, and I was the only other author a part of the day. Perhaps more authors scheduled would help, especially those with a name for themselves in their particular genre?
I have seen #hashtags take a leap in interest along with doing your own book trailer. Another thing I am enjoying is connecting with readers and authors on Facebook and LinkedIn, who want to swap reviews, or have a group that allows you to post the book you need reviews for.
Still, what I am seeing the most of are author and character interviews, and I can tell you quite honestly that usually these (on my site) get the most views out of everything I post. So that should tell you something.
If you have great way of finding reviewers, please let me know. One of the best things I have learned is that working with other authors brings results, even if it's primarily readers who haven't 'yet' bought your book.
Are you an author soon to publish his/her first book? Is your main character something to write home about?
I'm currently near the tail end of scheduled interviews for this year and would love to interview you or your main character or both!
Just drop me a line at kathy@ariverofstones.com and I'll send you the list of questions!
Keep in mind that this is a family friendly site, and that I'm only particular when it comes to books that cross over the PG-13 line, so keep that in mind when requesting an interview.
Author and character interviews are the most popular viewed posts on my site, and so if you're looking for a free way to get your name out there, I'm here to help!
I've got your ticket to success. Below are the five most read posts of April 2014. Again, I discovered that many of the most favorite posts had to do with what other writers are writing.
